Outdoor enthusiasts are no longer satisfied to hit the water with only their boat, a personal floatation device, and a paddle. Adventure seekers are not content to simply ride the best rapids; they want to film themselves doing so. Anglers are leaving their bass boats behind in exchange for kayaks that are better suited to enter secluded fishing holes. The fisherman, however, are not leaving their gear behind on their large boats. The kayak of choice should allow the angler to bring their rods, cameras, fish finders, GPS, smart phones, net, knives, pliers, bait, lures, or other gear along on the journey.
Many kayaks are not originally manufactured with the addition of aftermarket accessories in mind. As a result, significant effort is required to modify the shell of the kayak in order to accept the owner's desired accessories. FIG. 1 shows an accessory mounting bracket 10 available from SCOTTY Plastics Ltd, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada, which is mounted to the shell of a watercraft by a plurality of screws that must pass through the shell of the boat. The process for the owner to create properly spaced holes in the shell of their boat to accommodate this conventional accessory mounting bracket 10 is time consuming and could lead to damaging the boat.
Other kayaks are available with components that are pre-installed by the manufacturer and are intended to facilitate the attachment of accessories. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a kayak 20 is delivered with one or more rails 22 pre-attached to the deck of the kayak. These rails 22 are used to mount accessories, like a rod holder, to the kayak 20. The use of pre-installed rails 22 may be an improvement from the user's standpoint with respect to ease of attachment. However, the addition of the rail 22 to the kayak 20 by the manufacturer still requires creating holes in the shell after the initial molding process used to create the kayak's shell.
The present disclosure seeks to provide a system and method of mounting accessories to a kayak, along with a kayak configured for the same, which improves upon the means currently known in the industry for accessory mounting.